1 Hour 1 Decision (1H1D)

Zero to hero in no time flat. We return now to the tried and true Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button and the result is this third-person action adventure title developed by Ubisoft Quebec. Published by Ubisoft and developed using their proprietary Ubisoft Anvil engine, this game was released on just about every platform imaginable. From the same team that brought us Assassin's Creed Odyssey, this...

A strong contrast of light and dark. Move over Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button, we have a guest with a request! For this episode, our duo is joined by the one, the only, Stormageddon! Just to be clear, we are talking about the person, not the poorly-rated 2015 disaster movie. Moving along, our illustrious guest has chosen the turn-based RPG developed by Sandfall Interactive and published by Ke...

How many aliens fit in a wristwatch? The purpose of using the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button in game selection is to ensure that our hosts play games that they would never normally experience. The third person action adventure title developed by PHL Collective and published by Outright Games that was chosen for this episode is a perfect presentation of that purpose. Chris and Tom were too old...

It only took 25 years to get it localized! Developed by Xeen and published by Square Enix, this third-person action RPG remake of the third entry in the Mana series is the first time that story is officially available for Western audiences. Despite his well-established love of nineties RPGs, Tom never got around to playing the famous SNES installment of the franchise. Three decades later, he will...

Made with real British nuclear radiation! While it may be common to see games based on historical events, those events are usually surrounding some manner of military conflict. Not so for this alternate history action-survival game developed and published by Rebellion Developments which follows the fallout of the 1957 Windscale fire. When the government moves in and quarantines the facility and th...

Up in the sky! Look! It's a bird! No planes or supermen here, just your character riding a bird on a journey to discover and document lots of strange fantastical creatures in this third person adventure title developed by Hollow Ponds and published by Annapurna Interactive. The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button must want our hosts to see the forests and the trees in this game that places explora...

These wars advanced to groovy! The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has taken a turn toward strategy with its selection for this episode. Developed and published by Chucklefish, this sequel to the turn-based tactics title seems set for success. Will the developers leverage what they learned working on the original to deliver a refined experience or will they take bold risks instead? Tom seemed...

These yokai better watch out! After a brief sojourn, the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button is back in control of game selection. For this episode, it has chosen the first-person action title developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda Softworks. Following in the wake of their Evil Within franchise, the developers have hung on to some elements of horror, but also diverged from their us...

It was nearly called Joker Poker. Chris wants to play a roguelike? For you longtime listeners, I'm sure that sounds borderline inconceivable, but here we are with his thumb on the scale, pushing our duo to investigate the deck-builder developed by LocalThunk and published by Playstack. Available everywhere and now included with Xbox Game Pass, this indie title was crafted by a single anonymous dev...

Follow, follow, follow the road to the Enclave. Sometimes our hosts get lucky and the "Surprise Me" button picks something they wanted to investigate anyway. Such is the case for this fresh third person action-adventure title developed and published as the debut entry from Yellow Brick Games. With core designers formerly from Ubisoft Quebec and critically-acclaimed classics cited as inspiration, t...

Professed publicly and asserted openly. A new challenger appears! It's been a little while since we had a guest on this program and we are excited to have Dave from Tales from the Backlog join our usual duo to investigate the new action role-playing game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios. Mixing magic and melee sits at the heart of this title about an empire's...

Resist... your urge to run and gun! In 1992, two brothers started a company called Rebellion. Three decades later, their studio has come a long way from those humble beginnings. The most successful of their products is certainly the shooter franchise where players sneak around and one-shot their enemies from incredible distances. It seems fitting that the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has st...

What's this? Another planet in peril? It's starting to feel like the "Surprise Me" button may have an agenda as it puts our players on another alien planet in peril. In this action-adventure title by Inverge Studios, the world is suffering from an unstoppable infection, and the player is tasked with saving as many animals as possible before the end arrives. It sounds a bit like a futuristic Noah's...

It sounds gross 'cause it is gross. The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has put Tom and Chris on sanitation duty! For this episode, our hosts get to work cleaning up an alien world in the action-adventure title brought to you by Thunderful Development. The titular gunk looks like a certain alien symbiote, but this relationship is certainly more toxic for the host. Will liberating the environme...

Save the universe, at least metaphorically. The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has certainly surprised us with this indie puzzle adventure game developed by Feral Cat Den and published by Fellow Traveller Games. Taking inspiration from both noir-style detective stories and established scientific theories, this dialogue-free title challenges players to solve puzzles in order to prevent the mur...

These beasts are wild, how about their hearts? From the minds of Omega Force, the developers that brought you hordes of Dynasty Warriors, comes this decidedly different animal. In this action RPG, players must hunt one very nasty beast at a time instead of battling the typical tons of minions. To differentiate itself from others in the genre, this title includes a Katakuri mechanic, where players...

Which way will these tides turn? At the behest of the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button, our hosts engage with an isometric turn-based RPG developed by inXile Entertainment and published by Techland Publishing. Set in the universe of the tabletop RPG Numenera, this title may not be a licensed sequel to the beloved Planescape: Torment, but it shares a lot of that DNA, right down to the people inv...

No magic mushrooms, but yes to arm cannons. The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has run the bases and brought home a selection! Chosen for this episode is the third entry in the double-adjective sports series developed and published by Metalhead Software. With multiple modes, including a new franchise mode, this title was poised to hit a home run, at least with its existing fans. Where will To...

It goes to infinity, but not beyond. For this episode, the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has chosen the open-world farming game developed by the small Swedish studio called FRAME BREAK. What's unique about this resource harvesting title is that the player is doing the typical exploring and crafting from inside a mech. There's also a narrative component centered on a mystery that needs solvin...

Vacation's all she ever wanted! If you work a desk job, perhaps fighting monsters could be considered a vacation from your day-to-day life. The folks over at Microbird Studios take this premise quite literally with their 3rd-Person Action RPG centered around a young clerk looking to escape the monotony of her daily life by venturing to an Alpine town where magic and monsters are real. Tom and Chri...

All we want for Christmas is a whip... and a fedora. Proving they aren't a couple of scrooges, Tom and Chris have given the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button some time off for the holiday! In keeping with that same holiday spirit, they have elected to give each other the gift of playing the latest first-person action-adventure title from MachineGames. Featuring everyone's favorite archeologist a...

Wake up! Do androids need to wear make-up? Is it accurate to call a visual novel a game? What if it incorporates dice rolls and character advancement? The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button asks our hosts to ponder these questions with its selection for this episode. Crafted by the London-based one-person development studio Jump Over the Age and published by Fellow Traveller, this title is listed...

More lucrative than flipping burgers! The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has decided to wind things down with this renovation simulation developed by Empyrean and published by Frozen District and PlayWay. What this means in practice is that our hosts have been tasked with cleaning and fixing homes. Don't worry, they won't be breaking a sweat or pulling any muscles in this exercise, because al...

You can call this one a remake! Back in 1999, Capcom released their third Biohazard title. This episode is about the remake of that survival horror game, which was likewise developed by Capcom. With over twenty years and countless franchise entries separating the two, it is clear the actual development teams were comprised of different individuals. This leaves long-time fans to wonder: which team...

Putting the car in carnage! On this episode, Tom and Chris are off to the races. But it seems dishonest to call this a racing game, as racing is only one facet of the gameplay of this title developed by Bugbear Entertainment. As the name suggests, wrecking the opposition plays a major role in every game mode, and that is sure to set this game apart from your average racer. The developers call this...